There is no admission that the background art disclosed in this section legally constitutes prior art.
Water waste and property damage has been caused inadvertently when, for example, a fire hydrant is struck accidentally by a moving motor vehicle and dislodges from the water supply pipe. When a fire hydrant is damaged by a moving vehicle, many thousands of gallons of water per minute may be sprayed into the air under great pressure as high as about sixty feet. This water remains gushing uncontrollably for many minutes such as 30 to 60 minutes, until the fire department manually shuts off an inline valve.
The property damage done to surrounding businesses, homes and other property within a wide radius such as fifty yards, may be conservatively many thousands of dollars as a direct result of flooding. There is also the added cost to the tax payer of digging up and replacing the broken line, not taking into account many thousands of gallons of water, which is becoming a precious commodity.